A Holy Resting

The subject of the Sabbath seems to be a popular one this week. Without discussing it with each other, a close friend of mine published a post on the Sabbath similar to mine--on the same day as my post, I believe. Being a member of a Reformed church in the Dutch tradition, I am more familiar with the confessions known as the Three Forms of Unity (Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, Canons of Dort), but my thinking on the Sabbath led me to the Westminster Confession, which has far more specific content on the subject than the Heidelberg.

I especially appreciated paragraph 8 from chapter 21:

This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs before-hand, do not only observe an holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.

And I love the wording of the Shorter Catechism, Q&A 60, which teaches that the Sabbath is to be "sanctified by a holy resting all that day."